Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The Hungry Miles (1955)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip 'Industrial storm clouds'

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

As men work, narrator Leonard George Teale says 'industrial storm clouds hover on the waterfront’. Newspaper headlines and cartoons depict waterside workers as lazy and prone to striking. At Parliament House in Canberra, a Bill is passed. Shipping interests have lobbied the government to pass legislation that deprives waterside workers of their hard-won conditions. In a dramatised sequence, rank and file union members respond to the changes by raising their hands in a vote of solidarity to walk off the job. To understand the wharfies’ actions, the narrator says we must understand the background of the industry and the 'bitter memories of the men who worked the waterfront’s hungry miles’.

Curator’s notes

The Hungry Miles is structured in distinct sections. Shots of halting machinery and individual workers putting down their gear and filing off the docks re-create a scenario that was familiar to many of the wharfie extras. This scene – the call to stop work – is placed in its historical context in clip two which recreates some of the harsh conditions experienced by the poor and unemployed in 1930s Sydney.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer 'Industrial storm clouds' from the documentary The Hungry Miles as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
hungrymi1_pr.mp4 Large: 20.4MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
hungrymi1_bb.mp4 Medium: 9.6MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: